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AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



other properties of the wood, and the botanical characters of the tree 

 are common to other members of the species. The seeds depend for 

 their dispersal on running water, when the tree grows by a stream, or on 

 gravity, if situated on a hillside. The seed will not grow unless buried in 

 moist soil, and it retains its vitality only a few months. Few trees in the 

 United States have larger seeds than buckeyes. The tree is short-lived, 

 reaching maturity in most cases in less than a hundred years. It is 

 sometimes planted for ornament in this country and in Europe. 



SMALL BUCKEYE (SEsculits austrina) is one of the latest recognized 

 members of the buckeye household. It seldom attains a diameter above 

 five or six inches, or a height of twenty-five feet. It is, therefore, too 

 small to be seriously considered as a source of lumber, and even if trunks 

 were large enough, the species is too scarce to furnish many logs. It 

 grows on rich uplands from western Tennessee and southern Missouri to 

 Texas. The bright red flowers open in April, the fruit falls in October. 



PURPLE BUCKEYE (/Esculus octandra hybridd) is a variety charac- 

 terized by red or purple flowers and by leaves woolly on the under sides, 

 and bark of lighter color than that of yellow buckeye. The range 

 follows the Appalachian mountains from West Virginia southward. It 

 has been reported in Texas also. If the wood is used at all, it goes for 

 the same purposes as yellow buckeye. 



